Welcome to Joyner Library. We're here to help you get the most out of the library's resources as you move through SAFT 6040 online. If you need help at any time do not hesitate to Ask a Librarian.
Finding Articles:
Begin at the Joyner Library home page: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-lib/. Once on the library's homepage select the DATABASES tab on the top toolbar, or go directly to that page at:
What is a scholarly/peer-reviewed/research article?
There is not always a clear-cut division between types of publications, but there are some clues available to help you distinguish between scholarly journals, popular magazines, and trade journals. Not all features have to be present to make a publication "scholarly."
Audience is made up of scholars, researchers, students of the field
Written by specialists in the field, usually scholars or researchers with Ph.D.s
Appearance is 'serious and sober', with few colors and few or no advertisements
Coverage is original research results and scholarship
Are signed and often include author's credentials. Often have numerous joint authors
Are written in technical and scholarly language and may be reviewed or "refereed" before publication by an editorial board or outside scholars
Articles are often lengthier
Supposed to present objective/neutral viewpoint; often published by professional associations or university presses.
Frequency is usually quarterly or semi-annual
References are cited and usually includes a bibliography and/or footnotes
Examples are Journal of Applied Physics; Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport; Lancet
How Do I Choose a Database?
For SAFT 6040 there are several databases that will provide articles (both scholarly and not) in the area of safety studies. You are not limited to these by any means, but here are some suggestions:
Once into the database itself you will usually be able to limit to scholarly publications, and if the database does contain both full-text and abstracts-only, you will be offered the option to limit to full-text, where available. A couple of tips when searching:
Keep search strategies as simple as possible (less is more)
Use the Boolean operator AND to search for a topic that has more than one concept, i.e. safety AND hospitals
Can I search in a specific journal title only?
You can. It is somewhat unusual when doing research for a paper to start with an individual journal title rather than a database offering access to multiple titles, but there are occasionally instances when you might do this. If you do want to see whether Joyner has access to a specific journal title electronically and which database makes this accessible use the E-journal Locator (from the library's home page click the E-journal Locator tab on the top toolbar). To make things a bit easier for this course I have assembled a list of some selected safety journals, and which library databases carry them.
SELECTED SAFETY-RELATED JOURNALS AVAILABLE ELECTRONICALLY TO ECU:
TITLE OF JOURNAL
DATABASE TO SEARCH
Air Safety Week
ABI-Inform Trade & Industry
Biomedical Safety and Standards
Proquest Research Library
Chemical Health and Safety
Science Direct
Compliance Magazine
ABI-Inform Trade & Industry
Ecotoxicology and environmental safety (peer-reviewed)
Publishes studies that examine the biologic and toxic effects of natural or synthetic chemical pollutants on animal, plant, or microbial ecosystems, and their routes into the affected organisms.
Science Direct (Elsevier)
Fire Safety (peer-reviewed)
Serves the rapidly developing field offiresafetyengineering. This is a multidisciplinary subject whose aim is to make human activities and enterprise acceptably safe fromfire.
Science Direct (Elsevier)
Fire safety engineering
Business Source Premier
International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine (peer-reviewed)
Devoted to the advancement of the benefit/riskratio in the practice ofmedicineand to the management and containment ofriskin health care as a whole
Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
Journal of Safety Research (peer-reviewed)
Provides for the exchange of ideas and data developed throughresearchexperience in all areas ofsafetyincluding traffic, industry, farm, home, school and public.
Devoted to the development and application of methods for the enhancement of safety andreliabilityof complex technological systems, like nuclear power plants, chemical plants,hazardous waste facilities and space systems
Science Direct (Elsevier)
Safety Science Monitor
Directory of Open Access Journals
Structural Safety (peer-reviewed)
Devoted to integrated risk assessment for a wide range of constructed facilities such as buildings, bridges, earth structures, offshore structures, dams, lifelines and nuclearstructuralsystems.
Science Direct (Elsevier)
How can I see articles?
Many of our databases include the full text of articles right onscreen. In some cases, though, the full text of an article may not be available online in the database you are using due to publishers' restrictions or the prohibitive cost of providing them online. Increasingly, when you search for articles in the library's databases you will see the button on your results list or on the screen showing the citation/abstract of the article.
Citation Linker is a service offered by Joyner and Laupus Libraries that allows you, at the click of a button, to go from an article citation in one database to a full text copy of that article in another, or to see if a particular article or specific journal is available in full text electronic format. It also allows you to find out if that journal is available in print at either Joyner or Laupus.
What if the article I want is not available full-text online?
If the article is not available online, you can check the Joyner Library catalog or the Laupus Health Sciences catalog to see if it is held in printed form. The button does this for you automatically from within databases. If you live within Pitt County you would need to come to the library to make a copy of the article. If you are a distance learning studentliving outside of Pitt County, you can have articles copied and sent to you, using Interlibrary Lending. See: Getting Articles From Joyner Library
What if the article I want is not available at all through ECU?
If you have identified an article you need but it is not available in any format at ECU you can use our Interlibrary Loan service. There is no charge for this service. Often articles are scanned and sent to us electronically, so it may take only a week or so (sometimes less) to receive them. Printed materials may take a bit longer.
Need More Help?
Contact us anytime at "Ask a Librarian" or phone the Reference Desk at (252) 328-6677 during regular Reference hours or contact me directly: Bryna Coonin E-mail: cooninb@mail.ecu.edu, or by phone at (252) 328-0431. Don't suffer in silence........
